Acts 7:24-28

7:24 When ¹  he saw one of them being hurt unfairly, ²  Moses ³  came to his defense ⁴  and avenged the person who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. 7:25 He thought his own people ⁵  would understand that God was delivering them ⁶  through him, ⁷  but they did not understand. ⁸  7:26 The next day Moses ⁹  saw two men ¹⁰  fighting, and tried to make peace between ¹¹  them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’ 7:27 But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed ¹²  Moses ¹³  aside, saying, ‘Who made ¹⁴  you a ruler and judge over us? 7:28 You don’t want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

² tn “Hurt unfairly” conveys a better sense of the seriousness of the offense against the Israelite than “treated unfairly,” which can sometimes refer to slight offenses, or “wronged,” which can refer to offenses that do not involve personal violence, as this one probably did.

³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Or “he defended,” “he retaliated” (BDAG 55 s.v. ἀμύνομαι).

⁵ tn Grk “his brothers.”

⁶ tn Grk “was granting them deliverance.” The narrator explains that this act pictured what Moses could do for his people.

⁷ tn Grk “by his hand,” where the hand is a metaphor for the entire person.

⁸ sn They did not understand. Here is the theme of the speech. The people did not understand what God was doing through those he chose. They made the same mistake with Joseph at first. See Acts 3:17; 13:27. There is good precedent for this kind of challenging review of history in the ancient scriptures: Ps 106:6-46; Ezek 20; and Neh 9:6-38.

⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “saw them”; the context makes clear that two individuals were involved (v. 27).

¹¹ tn Or “tried to reconcile” (BDAG 964-65 s.v. συναλλάσσω).

¹² tn Or “repudiated Moses,” “rejected Moses” (BDAG 126-27 s.v. ἀπωθέω 2).

¹³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Or “appointed.”

¹⁵ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ at the end, “do you?”

sn A quotation from Exod 2:14. Even though a negative reply was expected, the question still frightened Moses enough to flee, because he knew his deed had become known. This understanding is based on the Greek text, not the Hebrew of the original setting. Yet the negative here expresses the fact that Moses did not want to kill the other man. Once again the people have badly misunderstood the situation.